Six reasons to curb caffeine

1.Heart. Caffeine makes your heart beat faster and raises blood pressure. It widens blood vessels and excites the system that conducts electrical impulses, which can lead to palpitations. People with high blood pressure, heart disease or irregular heartbeat problems should avoid caffeine.

alertness and can cause insomnia. After taking caffeine, sleepers are more easily aroused, move more during sleep and report a poorer quality of sleep.

5.Liver. It speeds up the metabolism and stimulates certain enzyme activities in the liver. This can alter the effects that some medicines have. For instance,

caffeine boosts the painkilling effect of aspirin. It takes about four hours for half of the caffeine in a cup of coffee to be metabolised, but much longer in people with liver disease and up to seven times longer in late pregnancy.

6.Kidneys. Caffeine acts as a diuretic, making the kidneys work harder,

reducing body water and leading to dehydration. It dilates the blood vessels in kidneys and speeds up the elimination of minerals and vitamins, many of which are essential to health, especially in menopausal years. One of the vitamins it depletes is B6, vital for preventing kidney stones. People with stones should avoid caffeine and increase intake of vitamin B6 and magnesium, (also important in preventing stones).